Macbook Video Cards

[TheBiggmann]

Is it possible to upgrade the video card in a macbook and will any notebook video card be compatible with a macbook? Or are there only certain ones that will work.

 

[TheStu]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Upgrade the video.... HAHAHAHAHA

woooo, sorry about that... anyway, no, you cannot upgrade the video card in either the MacBook or the MacBook Pro. They are soldered directly onto the logic boards. And in the case of the MacBook, it is Intel integrated graphics to begin with, so there is no place to put the upgraded video card.

Haha, upgrade the video card hahahaha, i need to write that one down.

 

[TheBiggmann]

Yeah, that's what I was worried about. How bad are the integrated graphics?

 

[TheStu]

The GMA950 is enough to run 720P video with no stutter, can handle all the flashy effects from OS X. And can play most games. I can run HL2 on it, and pretty much every game made around that time and before. Anything much more than HL2 though and you might as well not even try.

 

[TheBiggmann]

WC3 Run ok one it? I would imagine so cuz I think HL2 is more graphic intensive but i don't know much about that game. I won't be gaming on it a ton anyways I guess so it isn'ta huge deal.

 

[TheStu]

never tried WC3, dont much like game honestly

 

[slugg]

To tell you the truth man, if you want to do any gaming, don't get a Macbook. Save yourself the money and hassle and get a gaming laptop, which you can get for under the cost of a Macbook anyways.

However, Macbooks are great machines. I personally would like to have one, but I've already got a nice laptop. If you truly want a Macbook, my 6th sense is telling me that Apple will soon refresh/update the Macbook to have the new Intel GMA X3100 gpu. While it's still not a gaming chip, its significantly better than the current GMA 950.

To answer your question, yes Warcraft 3 will run on it at about minimum settings, but playable.

 

[Ichigo]

My 8MB TNT2 ran Warcraft III playably. I think you'll do fine.

 

[TheBiggmann]

Yeah I won't really use it a lot for gaming. Only when the boredom sets in pretty hard. I'll use it a lot for just school stuff and traveling, maybe some photo stuff, but not like hardcore professional photo editing, just playing around.

 

[TheStu]

WarCraft 3 will run fine.

 

[nitrousninja]

What about World of Warcraft? I don't need it at the best settings ever but descently playable for when I'm on trips. If it will play HL2 it should do WoW I would think.

The one I'm looking at has the 2G Core Duo and 2G of ram.

 

[TheStu]

I have run WoW on it, and it is playable. Gets a little laggy in some areas, but playable.